Airline chief executive arrested over Brazilian Chapecoense disaster

Bolivian authorities have arrested the head of LaMia, the airline involved in a plane crashed last week that killed 71 people in Colombia, including most of the Brazilian Chapecoense football team.

According to a report on BBC, Gustavo Vargas, a retired air force general and chief executive of LaMia with two other employees of the tiny Bolivia-based charter airline has been detained as part of an investigation into the crash.

This follows claims by a Bolivian official who said she warned the pilot of the airline before departure.

The prosecution which started on Tuesday at the prosecutor’s office in Santa Cruz for up to eight hours of questioning before prosecutors were to decide if they should be held in jail.

The Bolivian attorney general Ramiro Guerrero said the initial investigation was into possible criminal failure to follow safety procedures.

“It could easily turn into a manslaughter case,” he said.

The crash, which killed 71 people after the plane apparently ran out of fuel, sent shockwaves through global football.